By their own standards, in the months after Sgt Pepper, The Beatles have become sloppy. To be fair they have just made an album lauded as the greatest in pop music history and spent the last five years almost constantly touring and releasing records, so maybe we can let them off.

But now they are losing momentum. Paul spends his time whizzing around London in a mini, attending exhibitions and parties and becoming very much part of the scene that is flourishing there. George wants nothing more to do with pop and has retreated into his study of Transcendental Meditation. Ringo seems content to be living life as a sort of country gentleman, resting on his wallet in the Surrey suburbs, whilst John, disillusioned with it all, is losing himself to LSD.

For the first time in their history the Beatles have no desire to get back into the studio again. Paul vainly tries to impress upon them the idea of Magical Mystery Tour, but without Epstein to hold it together, the Beatles just don’t seem that into it. When they do enter the studio it is often on a whim, in the early hours of the morning when they are stoned.

In December 67 they release the Magical Mystery Tour double EP. This is their first record which could be said to short change the fans, bumped up as it is with songs that have already been heard. An alternative album would require the boys to take stock of their position and admit failure. Something they would have been unlikely to do, all four of them at this time starting to believe their own hype. Paul especially would have been loathe miss out on the lucrative Christmas market.

But let's say they did, let’s just say they decided to keep the songs in the can. They could still release a double A side single (Hello Goodbye/ I am The Walrus) to keep the wheels turning, but lets say they wanted to regroup and put a proper album of new material out when they were ready. What did they have left in the can? Just a few offcuts from the pepper sessions, not enough to make a record.

After Magical Mystery Tour the Beatles did not come back into the studio again until early 68’ with the purpose of making Lady Madonna, which McCartney felt was the single to get them back on track again. These sessions utilized other new songs- Lennon’s Hey Bulldog and Across the Universe and Harrison's The Inner Light. These songs were recorded with no specific purpose in mind, but nevertheless, in this alternate reality, they give us enough new material to make the album we require. So what if they had released an album, say in March 68, that looked something like this:

Magical Mystery Tour
The Fool on the Hill
Flying
Blue Jay Way
Your Mother Should Know
Only a Northern Song
You Know my Name (Look up the Number)

Lady Madonna
The Inner Light
All Together Now
Hey Bulldog
It’s all too Much
Across the Universe

It’s an album with only two Lennon songs on it, so surely would never have been allowed. But it holds a microscope up to those formless months. People talk about Lennon being absent during this period. Magical Mystery Tour does a fairly good job of disguising this but here you can really feel it. He crops up, mainly in ghostly backing vocals or clowning around but he is conspicuous in his absence. It is like there is a strange echo of Lennon, hovering about somewhere in the background of the songs.

As for the music itself, well it is a pale imitation of Pepper. I don’t think this would be regarded as a classic Beatle album. Probably it would be seen more along the lines of Let It Be or Help, namely a poor Beatle, but still better than most of what’s out there. It is slow music, heavy and drugged. It is a scrap book, a lazy summer day, and basically exposing the Beatles to be in the same state as the Stones on Their Satanic Majesties. By the time Hey Bulldog rolls around it is a welcome relief, Lennon’s snarl of: you don’t know what it’s like to listen to your fears (aimed at McCartney?), is the most real moment on the album, Harrison’s screeching guitar the most electric. Maybe it’s because there’s less of him, but you really cherish Lennon on this album. Across the Universe, with its invocation to a higher power, is the album's most moving song and shows Lennon to be streets ahead of McCartney, who though also losing his mind during this period, expresses himself with dross like All Together Now.

The running order is incidental, though I think Across the Universe works as a good closer whilst Magical Mystery Tour is a natural opener and You Know My Name and Lady Madonna are good openers and closers to the vinyl sides.

So the Beatles release schedule post Pepper could have looked something like this

July 67 A side single: All You Need is Love, (b side: Baby You're a Rich Man)

Dec 67: Double A side single: Hello Goodbye/ I am The Walrus

March 68: Alternative Beatles album

Following this the Beatles can go back to normal again. The boys realise they are losing their way and travel to India to get their heads together, steer clear of the drugs. They return to London refreshed and rejuvenated with a stockpile of songs as good as anything they have recorded before. With the release of Hey Jude/ Revolution in July 68 and The White Album in November they are back to the top of their game again. But they are never really the same. From here on in it seems The Beatles have to will themselves to get back in the studio. John and George have lost interest, they are happy to go along with it but only to a certain point. This alternative album, with the absence of Lennon, and McCartney desperately trying to hold it together, is the sound of cracks beginning to form.